I have been struggling to write this now for 3 months.  I have been cautioned, counseled about its content, prodded for its distribution, and have reached for publish and stopped a number of times.  The tough things in life are never easy, and admitting failure or that you have done something wrong or even just doing the right thing and standing for what is proper can be a rough task.  I try to be the example to those around me and so it is with that in mind that I have decided to make this statement to my friends, my followers, my family and the community that I belong to in hopes that I can move forward.  The community I refer to is inclusive of the men and Dads out there as well as my business contacts, my colleagues and those that I have been fortunate enough to know over the years and grow with over time.  I cannot continue forward with new things until I close out some of the old.

I am passionate and this brought me to being a Daddy blogger and business owner.  It was that passion and interest in the world of blogs and parenting that brought me to BlogHer a number of years ago.  I was sitting next to the pool in California with a few other dads, and we all said that it would be great if we had a conference for us guys to call our own.  We all chuckled then and rolled our eyes and asked who was buying the next round of beers?  Fast forward to early  2010. In February of 2010, I had an initial conversation with one of the organizers and founders of the Modern Media Man Summit.  At the time it did not have a name or a face a logo or anything more than a good idea of the person on the other end of the chat and they wanted to try a new company.  They wanted a conference for men and for dads.  This was after all, “The Year of the Daddy Blogger.”  I agreed to help be a part of what I thought would be a winning idea.

Having worked as the conference director and social media director for BlogWorld and New Media Expo the year before I thought I could provide some much needed expertise as well as some good business contacts and connections that I felt was needed to make the project a success.  It was agreed that we would go forward with the project.  Like in all of my endeavors, I threw my heart and soul into the success of the company and the project was underway.  I set aside most of my other business duties and began concentrating on what needed to be accomplished.    I reached out to some of my most trusted friends and the people I knew would give me some guidance.  They agreed to help and some of them became members to what would become the Advisory Board.  I reached out to another friend who I knew would be good to help with the coordination of speakers and content for the conference portion of the show.  I contacted all of my business contacts to let them know about the new project and that we wanted to give them the opportunity to partner with a great idea.  Some of them jumped at the chance and we signed a few sponsors and companies to being a part of the program early.  Things were progressing nicely and we were on track to making the conference a hit.  The 20 hour days of working by all the founders was paying off.

During the middle of March, 2010 there were differences between myself and another founder, and I decided then that we needed to have someone leading the charge that could be the head of the organization to keep it running in what I thought needed to be its direction.  We were about to sign our first big sponsor and we needed to focus and have a face and a personality of the business.  In my mind we needed a person to make the tough calls and a place where the buck stopped.  Being a man, and a father, I felt right in line with our target market and the best representative of the people we wanted to reach.  I volunteered to be the head of the organization, but indicated then that I needed to be able to run things the way I saw fit on issues of day to day decisions.  If it was going to be my neck on the line I wanted to control my own fate.  It was agreed that I would be the front of the organization for that purpose and business continued as usual representing to all that I was the man in charge.  On March 31, a little more than a month into the project I was told that the legal documents had been filed and that we could begin operating the business as a limited liability company in the State of Georgia.  I was a 1/3rd owner and was told that I was budgeted to receive a guaranteed sum of money for my work.  I began pushing to get contracts entered into and  started working hard to get to a finished product.  My vision of what an awesome conference for men and dads would look like was taking shape.  2 weeks later after what I felt was a grueling work schedule and having been criticized for nearly every decision, I made what would be my last decision on a matter that would be the best direction for the company and the conference.  It was met not with criticism this time but complete resistance.  I decided then that I could no longer lead the charge but that I would do everything in my power to contribute what I could.  Two days later I woke to check email only to find I had been blocked from the company email account locked out of the site and was told that I would not be contacted or spoken to unless I had signed a Nondisclosure Agreement that had contained a restrictive non-compete clause.  I inquired as to why, as an owner, I would be contracting not to disclose information with myself and not to compete with myself?  No response was forthcoming.  I made one final attempt to reconcile with the founders and again it was given complete resistance.  I reached out to a lawyer at that time to get some advice and was told not to sign any such agreements nondisclosure agreements and that any signing of agreements may supersede any previous agreements of the founders.  I then found out that no documents had ever been filed on behalf of the Modern Media Man Summit, LLC.  I was told next I was not to be a part of the organization.

I had brought all of their existing sponsors on board and was in line to speak with four others.  I had made promises, had discussions, made representations and risked much of my reputation, much of my social capital and invested nearly three months of a difficult work schedule.  I sit here 3 months later and look back wondering what has happened.  I see some of the work I have done and work that has not been done.  I continue to get calls from sponsors, from friends, from potential speakers and many that have no idea that I am not somehow still involved.  I only recently found out that the founders have not disclosed any of the above to some key sponsors and other parties.  For that I wanted to get this out in the open. I have not been involved with the organization on any level since May 17, 2010. Any decisions, representations or otherwise have not included me nor have I had any direction in how the company would proceed.  I have not received any  form of compensation for the time spent on this project.  I am not at liberty at this time to discuss my future with the organization, any liabilities I might have or the remedies I have before me, but I want to make it clear my involvement.  The costs have been great not only in the time and energy and effort spent, but in some friendships, some contacts, some reputation and many other intangibles.

I want to apologize to the people that have been harmed by this.  I have tried to reach out to some and offer a personal apology.  I may not know all that has occurred but I can assure you that I am truly and sincerely sorry if there has been a problem.  I can only hope to regain some of what I have lost.  I continue with my vision that we can have an event for Dads and for men.  It may yet prove to be the M3Summit.  It may be other projects and it may be someone that can lead that focus.  I will forge ahead and continue.  If anyone has any questions that I may be able to answer or if you want further information please feel free to contact me.

I woke up Thursday morning and had Haiti on my mind.  As I fed the kids their breakfast and started getting ready for my day, I saw on the news picture of children suffering in the damage of the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake.  My heart shattered and I wanted to do something.  I felt helpless watching as families were destroyed, mothers and fathers were dead and children and others had no homes, no food and no water.  I had to do something.  I couldn’t stand by and watch more of the devastation without a way I felt I could lend a hand.

I had no way to provide monetary support.  I am not Bill Gates and my meager bank account was not enough.  I needed a better way to help.  What did I have that would be valuable enough to help those victims I was seeing?  I could think of only one thing, the help of many.  I know social media is powerful and I have seen how it works with other causes.  Not to discount the other causes and their value, but this is going to be seen as the single most devastating tragedy of our time.  I need to make it count and I needed to do it soon.

I reached out to a few friends I knew would help me and people I knew could.  I talked first to Chris Noble of Cause Media Group and his latest project at WhatGives.com.  After I gave him my 3 minute pitch, he said, “I’m in Jim.”  I know I can count on him to give his all and it was no surprise at his reaction but nonetheless appreciated.

I next reached my new friend Chris Murch of WS Radio. I met Chris at BlogWorld & New media Expo and we launched Blog World Expo Radio in Vegas at that event.   I was not sure whether Chris would be comfortable with my idea, but he quickly laid that issue to rest when he said “We can make that happen.”

The result? Haitian Assistance Relief Telethon

I wanted to make an impact that meant more than my $5 donation or even a $500 amount.  I wanted to go big and prove what I already know, you get a community together behind something and good will come of it.

You can watch along with Ustream as well as listening to it live.  We are using the hashtag of #HART in all of our Tweets and you can follow along there as well.

I would love to ask you for your support as we try to make an impact of the lives of those suffering in Haiti. If I can only help one child it will be enough, but showing a impoverished nation of children that we care about their pain and hurt and we want to comfort them might make a difference.

I have recently launched Social Mediasphere TV and added it to my list of blogs including this one and including Bloggers For Hire in the long list of blogs I contribute to and provide.  Social Mediasphere TV is an extension of the radio I was doing on Blog Talk Radio.  You can still go over and take a look at my archives at that location and I may still continue my on location live radio using that service as it seems to be a very simple solution to the technical issues related to live radio.

I will be doing my show continuing here forward on Tuesdays at 5:00 p.m. PST and 8:00 p.m. EST.  We will be discussing all things Social Media and as always we will have special guests, commentary and even you as listener can call in and ask questions make your own comments or just be a guest yourself.  I am still working through all of the issues with using the applications of the trade, but I have been given some good advice and help from many friends that are cheering me on to make this new project a success.  See you all on Tuesdays!

Abby Johnson of WebProNews got a chance to catch up with me while we finished up our presentation about hiring professional bloggers while out at the Blog World and New Media Expo in the Executive and Entrepreneur Track. I moderated the panel of Darren Rowse of Problogger fame, Will Chen and Greg Go. It was a fun session and even I was able to learn a few things. Here is the video that Abby did following that session.

Jim Turner Video

It’s not exactly “Live From Las Vegas”, okay it is actually recorded from Las Vegas, but you can get a listen in on an interview that was done of me while I was out at Blog World and New Media Expo in Las Vegas last weekend. I intend to post some other thoughts on the experience, but wanted to give props to the folks at Blog Talk Radio and especially Mr. Daily who did the interview.

Listen to the show.

Feel free to get over to Blog Talk Radio and listen to some of the pre-show interviews I have done with Rick Calvert as well. We will be doing post show interviews of some of the sponsors, speakers and exhibitors as well so stay tuned and we will be providing a lineup of people we intend to talk to and interview about their experience in Las Vegas.

I was talking to one of my bloggers recently about getting back to my roots and getting back to what made me the blogger I am today. I talked about rediscovering the talents that I developed long ago when I was a Daddy blogger talking about the little things in life that as I discovered recently are actually the big things. He said something remarkable that immediately caused me to think of this post, he said “It’s like going home.”

I have had that in my mind and can’t get the thought out of my head. I like the sound of “going home.” The thought of going home has many emotions and memories, even smells and other senses and thoughts of better days. I think of all of the times I actually went home when it brought with it the safety of youth and the feeling of protection and notion of being where I belonged.

What does this have to do with social media consulting or anything business related? I believe we all need to sometimes take a moment to stop and go home. We need to get an idea of what brought us to where we are and what started us on the journey to begin with and to see if we are still on that path. Many times we have changed paths without ever knowing and we need to refocus our efforts to get back on the proper path.

For me, getting back to what the true nature of blogging is and was for me is essential to being able to teach and mentor others. It allows me to explain to companies needing my services with the passion I first had for blogging and how it changed my life and the can change their company. As a business owner can you remember where your home is? Perhaps you are working for a company and can think of the time when you first decided that you believed in your company and its message or mission. If not perhaps a short trip back home is in order.

[photo courtesy of sanjoyg]